It looks like the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is back. This time, the notorious handset has a special identifier in its name with the "R" in Galaxy Note 7R standing for refurbished. Earlier this year, there was talk about Samsung bringing back the twice-recalled phablet as a refurbished model, but that rumor was originally denied, and then confirmed. Issues with the batteries in the Galaxy Note 7 caused several units to explode last year, resulting in the device getting pulled off store shelves.

A subsequent internal investigation run by Samsung confirmed that the Note 7 was done in by two different battery models. Samsung has started to implement an 8-point battery inspection plan for all new handsets. And in an effort to prevent battery issues from rearing their ugly heads again, the refurbished Galaxy Note 7 units will be powered by a 3200mAh battery, a smaller capacity than the 3500mAh juicer that originally powered the fateful phablet.

Some also blamed Samsung for the explosions, complaining that the manufacturer was too ambitious. The Galaxy Note 7 contained an iris scanner, a fingerprint scanner, a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED screen protected by Gorilla Glass 5, and had an Exynos 8890 or a Snapdragon 820 chipset under the hood (depending on where you bought the phone). 4GB of RAM was inside along with 64GB of native storage. The 12MP camera on back came with an f/1.7 aperture and OIS. The selfie snapper in front weighed in at 5MP and Android 6.0 was pre-installed.

posted on Apr 08, 2017, 11:10 AM 8

Posts: 2443; Member since: May 06, 2009

Yup. For a while there I avoided coming here. I got tired of having to have Opera installed to browse only this site, so I bounced. But I couldn't find another site that covers smartphone news as good as Phone Arena so I reinstalled Opera and I'm coming here again. Still using an ad blocker, I'm sorry Phone Arena I want to give you ad revenue but the level of disruptive ads is just too much.

posted on Apr 08, 2017, 12:23 PM 1

Posts: 26; Member since: Dec 27, 2016

Don't know if u know this.. The president here in South Africa earns more than presidents in most countries.. but anyway There are plenty of people here with high end phones.. so yeah, they can afford it..

posted on Apr 08, 2017, 2:21 PM 6

Posts: 3020; Member since: Feb 06, 2013

posted on Apr 08, 2017, 8:44 PM 2

Posts: 5885; Member since: Dec 02, 2011

Africa is a continent just like America - there are rich countries and there are poor countries.
It's like asking am US citizen if he can afford a smartphone, thinking that Venezuelan or Bolivian people earn little money.

posted on Apr 08, 2017, 10:12 AM 2

Posts: 970; Member since: Jan 17, 2017

posted on Apr 08, 2017, 10:15 AM 4

Posts: 14967; Member since: Sep 25, 2013

Well they wouldn't have enough for the US anyways. They only made about 4M.
But I will be searching in Europe to see if it pops up. I would like to order one.
Though I'm not sure how it would come, accept by boat. Because it likely is still banded from air travel.

posted on Apr 08, 2017, 10:51 AM 1

Posts: 14967; Member since: Sep 25, 2013

Well even though I loved it and didn't want to give it up, I'm over my Note 7 now. I am anticipating the Note 8 and anxiously waiting for my S8+.
So long Note 7. It was a splash!
Time to move on to the Next BIG Thing(s)!

posted on Apr 09, 2017, 1:26 AM 0

Posts: 135; Member since: Mar 02, 2017

posted on Apr 08, 2017, 1:04 PM 1

Posts: 30496; Member since: Feb 05, 2011

If it were coming here, I could've gone for one. The S8 Plus has so many S-Pen features baked in without the need for an actual S-Pen though, that it makes me not trip about not having one. Samsung seems to be bridging, and bringing the S Series and Note closer.
I can't wait to get mine, they dropped the ball once again on the IR blaster though. Kudos to LG for keeping it. Please bring the IR blaster back. The S8 is thicker, so the room is there.